The U.S. Has an Electronic Warfare Plane and One of Them Is Headed to Korea

The U.S. Air Force just sent one of its most advanced electronic warfare aircraft to South Korea.

The EC-130H Compass Call, originally designed to jam enemy radio signals, was recently upgraded with the ability to identify and attack enemy wireless networks. The EC-130H was spotted traveling from Yokota Air Base, Japan to Osan Air Base in South Korea and reported on Twitter by @AircraftSpots.

The Compass Call program dates to the 1980s and involves C-130 Hercules transport aircraft fitted with electronic jamming devices and a crew of 13, including four cryptologic linguists. The idea is that linguists would identify important radio frequencies used by enemy forces and jam them, particularly command and air defense frequencies. Indeed, the U.S. Air Force lists the EC-130’s armament as “non-kinetic energy waveforms.”

In addition to military communications, Compass Call can jam civilian communications, including cell phones and wireless improvised explosive devices, and has supported U.S. operations against Iraqi insurgents, the Afghan Taliban, and Islamic State fighters.

In September 2015, Breaking Defense reported that the EC-130H could target enemy computer networks, quoting the head of the Air Force’s cyber command as saying, “Lo and behold! Yes, we’re able to touch a target and manipulate a target, [i.e.] a network, from an air[craft].”

The ability to locate and penetrate enemy networks could be very useful against North Korea. While the inability to fly over North Korean airspace rules out connecting with short-range wireless networks, it’s possible Compass Call could pick up cell phone networks and break into Koryolink, the official state cell phone service provider. It’s also possible that Compass Call has some other classified capability the Air Force is not revealing at this time, as The War Zone reported late last year.

The Air Force plans to transition the Compass Call program to a new airframe, tentatively known as EC-X, starting in 2020. The Air Force will transplant the guts of the current fleet of fourteen EC-130Hs into ten newer aircraft.

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